09:40am  ~  I got back from Majorca earlier this morning, and I’m going to have a day here at home catching up on emails etc.  I did manage to have a “Trade With A Day Job” evening trade last night – it kicked off just after 7pm local time (6pm UK time) and I managed to get +40 pips before I had to close the position off as I was due out.

The start of the trading week yesterday saw the U.S. Dow Jones 30 index shed 161 points to end the day in the red at 16,261. The start of the earnings season kicks off today so we may see a rebound for the US equities but you can see the short term trend has now turned bearish since the testing of the historic high of c.16600 last Friday, a level not seen since the turn of the year. Troubles between Russia and Ukraine seem to be escalating once again, so that may have a muted effect on any climb back upwards for equity markets both here and across the Atlantic.

Gold seems to have shrugged off the bearish slant it’s had since mid-March and is steadily on the rise again as investors see that the U.S. economy is deemed strong enough to keep the Feds tapering programme going as outlined by chairman Yellen – it has started strongly today boosted by overnight trading in Asia.

10:05am  ~  While sitting here in the study catching up on emails I’ve got myself into a ‘short’ on my S&P500 chart. The stop loss is an agreeable 28 pips.

13:05pm  ~  I am now out of my only trade of the morning –  there’s a possible UTB set-up forming in the other direction so I am going to try that if it materializes.  I have managed +39 pips.

13:15pm  ~  I am now in a ‘long’ position on my S&P500 chart although this maybe just a quick trade as we have the U.S. trading session open very soon, and the market will sometimes become volatile at this time.  I have a 29 pip stop loss.

14:45pm  ~  I am now out of my ‘long’ S&P trade, the price has gone in all directions in the past half hour – I have managed +30 pips giving me a fair profit/loss ratio.  I am off for a cycle ride now, I have spent too long in front of my laptop today.

17:30pm  ~  Back from a nice afternoon out – and I’m going to watch my S&P500 chart for a couple of hours to see if there’s any “Trade With A Day Job” set-ups.

17:55pm  ~  A set-up has just appeared on my chart so I am now just waiting for the price to go up so the trade is triggered.  The stop loss looks around 17 pips.

18:05pm  ~  In ‘long’ on the S&P.

18:30pm  ~  The strength of the up-move on the S&P has calmed down slightly and as I am going out for the evening soon I have called it a day on my trading and collected +33 pips from this trade.  I shall send my students a chart screenshot of this trade in a minute – email me if you’d like a copy.

Daily Target Reached ?  YES  (+102 pips)